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The Dechronization of Sam Magruder

by George Gaylord Simpson

New York: St. Martin's Griffin, 1997. 160 pages.

Paleontologist and architect of the modern synthesis, George Gaylord Simpson also ventured into fiction with The Dechronization of Sam Magruder, in which a physicist working on a quantum theory of time is catapulted back to the Cretaceous, which Simpson describes in loving detail. With a preface by Arthur C. Clarke and an afterword by Stephen Jay Gould. Yves Barbero, writing in Creation/Evolution (1996 Summer; 16 [1], nr 38: 32), remarked, "Simpson's novel is a terrific read on many levels. ... The book is a full evening's pleasure."